


let's cast a spell

by fawndaisy (apprentice)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Clones, Gifts, Love Confessions, M/M, Secret Admirer, dream has a comeback on valentines for dorming and self indulgence purposes, the devil works hard but markly works harder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 13:27:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29261205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apprentice/pseuds/fawndaisy
Summary: 160520 NCT Dream Online FansignQ. 5 Marks or one 5 year old Mark?HC: Ah, this is really hard to choose! I think I’d pick… 5 Marks?(Or: Mark gets cloned and does what any reasonable person would do: become a secret admirer.)
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 10
Kudos: 110
Collections: Love Dream 2020





	let's cast a spell

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yutaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yutaa/gifts).



> to: mina  
> hi!! this fic follows the note/gift secret admirer prompt but it got a little bit out of hand… i know it doesn’t seem to follow your prompt at first but i promise it will feature further in; i’m sorry for adding extra unprompted stuff to it T__T
> 
> i hope u still enjoy it C:
> 
> happy valentines!!

_160520 NCT Dream Online Fansign_  
  
**Q. 5 Marks or one 5 year old Mark?**  
HC: Ah, this is really hard to choose! I think I’d pick… 5 Marks?

When Mark wakes up, it’s unexpectedly to the sound of someone calling his name. Unexpected because he’d fallen asleep next to Chenle and across the room from Jeno, both of whom are arguably much worse at waking up than him, and because he hadn’t heard his alarm, which had been set as the voice of Yuta yelling his name loudly in a group effort between Yuta, Johnny and Jaehyun. 

“Give me a minute,” Mark mumbles, tuning out the voice of the person—whose identity he can’t quite pin down while still half asleep—in favour of squeezing his eyes shut and pulling the blanket over his head.

“Mark, it’s important,” The person urges. Mark furrows his eyebrows. From his place under the blanket, the voice sounds stilted but oddly familiar. It sounds almost like… him?

He throws the blanket back down and sits up quickly, squinting at the person by his bed.

Three identically blurry apparitions are seated in front of his bed. Mark stares. His vision is quite bad without glasses, but Mark is fairly sure that years of studying his appearance and movements in practice room mirrors has familiarised him with his own appearance. The three people in front of him have the same build and hairstyle as him and, when Mark leans closer to check his hunch, he can see his own shell shocked face staring back at him, eyes wide open.

“What the fuck?” Mark yelps, before the closest not-Mark startles and covers his mouth with his hand.

“Shh, dude, Jeno and Chenle are still asleep,” not-Mark says. Mark’s eyes dart to the side to check Jeno’s mattress, which indeed contains Jeno sprawled out on top of the blankets, thankfully still fast asleep.

“Who are you,” Mark whispered, voice muffled by not-Mark’s hand.

“I’m you,” Not-Mark deadpans, letting go of Mark and leaning back. “The remaining three Marks are also you.”

“Three?” Mark asks, glancing at the two silent apparently-Marks behind not-Mark before focussing on the closest person to him again. Not-Mark’s gaze falls somewhere behind him, so Mark naturally turns around. Chenle, who had fallen asleep next to Mark last night, is still fast asleep, and his hands are wrapped around what seems to be yet _another_ Mark. Mark pauses briefly, temporarily stunned at the sight of himself willingly cuddling someone, before he turns around again.

“Same,” The apparently-Mark on the left says.

“We don’t know how this happened,” The final apparently-Mark says. “But it seems we somehow got cloned into 5 copies of ourself? Pretty wacky, haha.”

Mark rubs his eyes with the hand that wasn’t clutching his blanket. “Dude, you’re way too calm to be a copy of me right now,” Mark mutters.

“Had my freakout ten minutes ago,” Final apparently-Mark replies cheerily. “Now it’s your turn.”

A cough sounds out from Jeno’s direction, and they all startle in unison before quickly glancing at Jeno, only relaxing when they notice he’s still sleeping.

“We should probably wake them up,” not-Mark-turned-also-Mark says, glancing again at Chenle and the Mark clone cuddling him.

“Alright,” Mark nods, clapping a hand on also-Mark’s shoulder. He briefly pauses when he notices not-Mark’s sleepwear, which are identical to his own as far as he can tell. He forces his gaze away. “Jeno first?”

“Right,” Right-apparently-Mark says, standing up to lock the door. “Let’s get it.”

“You two are taking this _way_ too easily,” Mark grumbles, seating himself down between a Mark clone and Chenle only ten minutes later, after they wake up Jeno, Chenle and the final Mark copy.

The room they’re all sleeping in actually belongs to Jeno, but he had been kind enough to offer his room to Mark and Chenle when they moved back into the Dream dorm temporarily for their upcoming comeback. He also volunteered his double bed to both of them while he pulled out a single mattress for himself, which fans will likely interpret as kindness; Mark really knows it’s because he just doesn’t want to share a bed with Mark or Chenle. Despite his room ownership status, Jeno sits meekly on the floor between two Mark copies (Mark has given up trying to distinguish between them the moment they started moving around) while Chenle alone lies on the bed with his back to the ceiling, head resting on his palm. 

“It’s too early in the morning for this,” Chenle mumbles, yawning unabashedly without covering his mouth. “So like, who’s the real copy?”

The Marks all glance at each other. “I am,” They say in unison.

Jeno sighs. “Well that’s not helpful.” 

“Are you all completely identical?” Chenle asks curiously. 

“As far as we can tell, yeah,” The Mark on Chenle’s other side says. “Down to the pimples and everything.” Mark’s hand flies up immediately to hover over the pimple on his chin, which had appeared two days ago to Mark’s immense sadness. Then he puts his hand back down when he remembers that he shouldn’t be touching the pimple at all lest it gets even worse.

“Can you read each other’s minds?” Chenle presses on, leaning forward slightly with interest.

Dutifully, Mark turns to one of his copies and tries his best to hear his thoughts. _This is stupid. Wait, is this my voice or theirs? We have the same voice. Aw, fuck._

“I don’t think we can,” He says. The other Marks nod quickly in agreement.

“Maybe we should name you guys something, to distinguish between you guys for now,” Jeno suggests, rubbing his eyes and blinking.

“Would it really matter?” One of the Marks ask doubtfully. 

“Well, do you have a solution to turning back into one?” Chenle asks. “No? That’s what I thought. Names for you all in the meantime.” He points at Mark suddenly, and then moves his arm to continue on to the other Marks, skipping past Jeno smoothly. “Mark 1, Mark 2, Mark 3, Mark 4, Mark 5. Done.” 

Mark stays quiet, secretly pleased at being named Mark 1 despite it being based purely on chance and nothing else. The other Marks are not so silent.

“Why does he get to be the first Mark?”

“Chenle, these names are so bad.”

“Second is just the first loser.”

“I’m literally you, dude.”

Jeno snickers. “Okay, okay, wait. I got it. NCT Mark, NCT U Mark, NCT 127 Mark, NCT Dream Mark, SuperM Mark.”

Several Marks and Chenle groan. “Funny, but impractical,” Mark says. “How about the same numbers Chenle gave us, but in roman numerals.”

“Why?” Chenle asks. “They’re spoken aloud the same way anyway.”

“Looks fancier,” One of the other Marks reply.

Chenle snorts. “Alright, fine. Mark I, Mark II, Mark III, Mark IV, Mark V,” He says, pointing around the circle again.

Mark, now Mark I, grins, happy that he’s the first Mark.

“So what do we do now?” Jeno asks from his spot between the newly christened Mark III and Mark IV.

“Should we tell the others?” Mark II asks.

“Hey, what time is it?” Mark V asks. “I can’t see without my glasses.” 

“It’s ten,” Chenle says, glancing at his phone. “Do you all have glasses?” Their gazes all fall on Jeno’s bedside table, which contains a lonely, singular pair of glasses. “I guess not,” Chenle sighs. 

“We have some old pairs in our room,” Mark III says. “The one in the 127 dorm, that is.”

Chenle glances at all the Marks one by one. “You know, you can use this to your advantage,” He muses, pointer finger tapping lightly against his cheek.

“What?”

“Your present for Donghyuck,” Chenle elaborates, and Mark immediately feels himself flushing. It’s even weirder when he can see the Mark next to him blushing as well. A protest sits on his tongue, but before he can voice it Chenle waves his hand. “No need to lie, it’s cute. My present for Jisung will be better but,” He shrugs, and Mark rolls his eyes. 

“How are five copies of us running around going to help? Oh wait—” Mark V stops mid sentence in surprise, and Mark would laugh at the look on all his clones’ faces when they come to the same realisation if it weren’t for the fact that it was his own face, and he himself was coming to the exact same conclusion as them.

“Comeback times are busy; the more copies of you, the more you can prepare for your present idea. I’m a genius, I know,” Chenle says dismissively, grinning at Mark V. “You’re welcome.”

“Thanks, Chenle,” Mark V says sincerely, and Chenle’s grin turns embarrassed. 

Mark clears his throat. “I can attend all proper rehearsals and stuff, just to keep it consistent since we can’t read each other’s minds.”

“We can’t hide five Marks in our dorm,” Jeno says, frowning at the door. “Not if we want to keep it a secret from Donghyuck and the others.”

Chenle rolls his eyes. “You can stay at my house in the meantime, I _guess_ ,” He says. “Mark I, you’re in charge of staying at the dorm and distracting whoever else is awake right now while I sneak the rest of your copies out. The rest of you, get ready to leave.”

Mark watches in fascination as the rest of his clones stand up one by one, gathering around the door.

“Alright, let’s get it!” One of them hoots.

“Hey, that means I get the good glasses, right?” Mark asks, eyeing Jeno’s bedside table.

“You’re all supposed to be _quiet_ ,” Jeno laughs from his place on the floor.

Mark first gets the idea to confess to Donghyuck on Jisung’s birthday.

The impulsive decision had started like this: Mark, Donghyuck, Renjun, Jaemin and Jeno gathered together on the couch in the living room, with Donghyuck sprawled out between Mark and Renjun.

The living room had been silent, everyone still tired from being woken up early in the morning for Chenle to prepare his birthday present for Jisung. Mark found himself yawning as he leaned against the couch, Donghyuck’s head resting on his lap as he watched Chenle and Jisung buzz around the dorm.

“I wish someone would do this for me,” Donghyuck’d muttered offhandedly, successfully breaking the silence of the living room. The _something like this_ in question was Chenle surprising Jisung with a treasure hunt on his birthday, scattering clues around the dorm for Jisung to solve in order to find his present. Mark wasn’t really sure what was romantic about turning half the dorm upside down, but to each their own, he supposed.

Mark had blinked, while Jaemin had laughed and said, “It’s okay, I got you babe. Your birthday is in four months right? I’ll send you around the entirety of Seoul. Chenji’s got nothing on me.”

Donghyuck’d kicked Jaemin’s foot. “I meant a romantic gesture, dumbass. There’s nothing romantic about physical exercise.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that—” Another kick.

So that’s what kickstarted Mark’s plan. 

It was fairly simple, only the bare-bones of the plan laid out in his phone’s notepad as Mark desperately searched the internet for ways to woo someone: Donghyuck loved gift giving and words of affirmation (according to the love languages test that Chenle made them all do four months ago, probably for his own plans with Jisung but since it’s benefiting Mark anyway, Mark treats Chenle to a meal the next day to the bemusement of the boy) and a secret admirer would probably boost his ego a little, so Mark’s plan is to anonymously give gifts and notes to Donghyuck up until Valentine's day, when Mark will confess his feelings. The anonymity will let Mark gauge Donghyuck’s reactions and also give him time to steel himself mentally before confessing.

There were only two problems with this plan. Firstly, time. As NCT Dream is currently preparing for their first proper, promoted comeback since Mark’s graduation and re-entering of NCT Dream, the sub-unit was busier than ever, going all out to prepare for their first full album in order to prove to the company that letting them stay as 7 was the right decision. Mark’s entire schedule is essentially filled with lessons and rehearsals, and the only slivers of time he has left is to be spent at the cafeteria eating quickly or at the dorm sleeping. Secondly, proximity. Because of the aforementioned preparations for their comeback, it will be extremely difficult for Mark to do something secretly without Donghyuck noticing, as they’re basically attached at the hip during this time.

The recent development provided a nice solution to Mark’s problems. While Mark takes over all rehearsals and recordings (since they don’t know how long they’ll stay split for, after a bit more discussion later on they decided that one of them should be consistent in attending all the proper preparations for the comeback in case they don’t morph back into one person by the comeback date, and Mark I who’d volunteered first initially was the one playing this role), the remaining four are free to plan and prepare for Donghyuck’s gifts. Because they are all Mark (and hence look identical to him), as long as they’re careful to not be spotted at the same place or at two different locations simultaneously, they can also sneak around and plant the gifts in the right places for Donghyuck as well.

It’s an unexpected blessing. 

(“Shouldn’t you be more concerned about turning back into one?” Jeno asks.

Mark II shrugs. “I mean, there’s no side effects that I can feel or see so far, so I don’t think there’s any harm in continuing for now.”

“We tried looking online for solutions too but none of them seem realistic,” Mark IV adds.

Jeno shakes his head. “Just be careful, guys.”

“Thanks, Jen,” All the Marks chime.)

His first gift for Donghyuck is a bouquet of sunflowers.

Chenle almost falls over laughing when he sees the gift, but in Mark’s defence he wasn’t the one who bought it, technically. He didn’t even know that _that_ would be the gift until Donghyuck did. (As it turns out, one of the problems with having clones of yourself that you can’t read minds with is that when you split into multiple bodies, there’s still only one phone shared between the five of you. “We should have kept our phone in our pocket when we went to sleep, then there’d probably be five of them,” Mark III says sadly when Mark I pockets the phone, since it would be suspicious for Mark Lee to forget his phone anywhere in this day and age.)

“Damn, Donghyuck,” Jaemin whistles. “Who’s that from, hm?”

Donghyuck twirls the bouquet in his hands and hums. “I’m not sure,” He says. “Oh, there’s a handwritten note though. To Lee Donghyuck _,_ ” He reads dramatically. “These flowers cannot compare to your radiant personality, but I still hope they make you smile. Love, your secret admirer.” Mark feels his ears turn red, and he internally curses his clones for not preparing him for this beforehand. Who even _wrote_ that note? _You did, technically_ , a voice that sounds suspiciously like Chenle echoes in his mind.

“Gross,” Renjun gags.

Donghyuck turns to Mark, who has a locker two spots underneath him thanks to them sharing the same surname. “It’s quite pretty, right hyung?” He asks. 

“Yeah,” Mark says quickly, focussing his gaze on the bright flowers and not Donghyuck’s face.

“Too bad I have hayfever, hmm,” Donghyuck says, turning to put the flowers back in his locker. Mark’s heart drops.

“I don’t see you throwing them away,” Jisung says mildly.

“It’s a waste of money if I do,” Donghyuck replies, “So I guess I’ll keep it for now.”

He glances at Mark to check his reaction, but Mark is too busy mentally preparing a message to send to his clones to notice.

The next present is a lot smaller-scale, but Mark is still caught by surprise nonetheless.

“Banana milk!” Donghyuck exclaims, pulling the milk carton out of his locker.

They’re alone this time. The rest of the locker area is empty, since the other NCT units don’t have comebacks at the moment and hence have little reason to be using their practice room lockers (typically, they’d bring their own clothes and items in a backpack and leave it in their practice rooms, but since it can get pretty messy during group rehearsals, they’ve all decided to start using their company assigned lockers instead when they’re rehearsing together, only bringing water and a towel with them to the practice room), while the rest of the Dream members have already gone off to the showers, with Donghyuck dropping by the lockers to grab his spare towel, which he’d forgotten to take with him earlier, and Mark pretending to do the same while he anticipates what his clones put in Donghyuck’s locker next.

Mark waits to see if Donghyuck will say anything else, and there’s a silence in the locker area for a second until Donghyuck continues, “Damn, I wanted chocolate today.”

Mark frowns. Donghyuck’s favourite milk flavour has always been banana milk, ever since he fought Mark during their second meeting ever back when they’d still been trainees to have a sip of his drink and accidentally spilled the milk all over Mark’s clothes. Maybe Mark’s memory was faulty, but he’s fairly sure he saw Donghyuck drinking banana milk just three days ago. Maybe he’d simply gotten sick of the flavour now. Huh.

“Hey Mark,” Donghyuck says. 

Mark turns around, the _hyung_ sitting on the tip of his tongue instinctively to protest Donghyuck’s lack of honorifics before Donghyuck breezes past that and says, “Do you want this?”

Mark bites his lip. “Sure,” He says, taking the drink from Donghyuck’s hand. Might as well have it himself if Donghyuck doesn’t want it. Donghyuck grabs his wrist before he can pull it back towards himself.

“Come with me to buy chocolate milk later,” Donghyuck says quickly. “Since I’m giving you a free drink and all.”

Technically this came from Mark’s own wallet, but he simply shrugs and smiles. “Sure, Hyuck. Why not.”

“Great!” Donghyuck says, adjusting the handles of his backpack, looking all but ready to sprint off to the showers, as if he’s super excited to go buy milk with Mark. “Catch you outside the change rooms later?”

“Sure,” Mark replies to a retreating Donghyuck’s back.

“Dude, you guys gotta start letting me know what you give him beforehand,” Mark says when he flops on Chenle’s couch, bone-tired after another long day of practice. 

“It’s hard to find a way,” Mark V replies from his spot on Chenle’s armchair. “Plus it’ll be more secretive if you yourself don’t know what you give him, right? So your reaction will be more natural, yknow.”

“The clones are fightinggg,” Chenle teases. Mark throws a pillow at him, but misses thanks to his non-existent arm strength at the moment.

“We’re not,” Mark II protests. “It’d be stupid fighting with myself.”

“We’ll try to find a way,” Mark III says reassuringly to Mark.

Mark groans in confusion at all the Marks talking and hides his head under a pillow.

When Mark opens his locker two days later, there’s a new ferrero rocher chocolate placed precariously on top of his backpack. Mark quickly puts the chocolate into his pocket and then closes his locker. He shuffles to the side to let Donghyuck access his locker, leaning nonchalantly against the lockers next to theirs to get a better view of Donghyuck’s reaction.

Donghyuck presses his lips together when he sees the present—a box of chocolates—and briefly smiles. Then he closes the locker again and leaves the locker area, patting Jeno on the shoulder on his way out.

“Thanks for the present!” Donghyuck trills. “I love it, how’d you know I was craving chocolate?” He doesn’t wait to hear Jeno’s answer, walking off while humming a B-side track in their latest album.

“Wait, what?” Jeno replies, sounding just as confused as Mark feels.

The rest of the gift-giving continues in a similar fashion—purposeful little reaction from Donghyuck besides his usual theatrics, which is usually teasingly thanking another Dream member to their immense confusion, though he doesn’t do that to Mark. Never Mark.

Mark—all the versions of him—is thoroughly confused. While most would assume from Donghyuck’s reactions that he simply wasn’t interested in receiving gifts from a secret admirer, Mark knows from observation that, besides the banana milk he gave to Mark, Donghyuck actually takes care of his presents quite well. The flowers are now in a vase in his and Jaemin’s shared room, the chocolates stored safely away from the members’ hungry gazes, other gifts placed carefully on desk, and the note one of the Marks had written and placed in his bouquet is now pressed carefully in his diary, which he keeps in his backpack at all times. Maybe Mark is overthinking this, but Donghyuck is a person of deliberate actions, and Mark doesn’t know how to interpret whatever Donghyuck’s been doing so far.

Another thing that bothers Mark is that Donghyuck doesn’t seem to know who the gifts are from at all. Of course, Mark decided on the whole secret admirer idea to grant himself anonymity, but he still thought it would be fairly obvious who it was given how long they’ve known each other. The secret admirer definitely could not have been a normal person, having access to Donghyuck’s locker, and they would have to know Donghyuck’s schedule to be able to place the gifts efficiently without getting caught. This narrows the list of potential people down quite a bit, and from there the gifts should give Donghyuck a better idea of who the gifter was.

“Maybe we’re not being obvious enough?” Mark muses aloud. 

“Maybe,” Mark V agrees, immediately following Mark I’s train of thought. “Should we switch it up?”

“Why not,” Mark II nods. “I have an idea, can you call Chenle?”

“Hey, Hyuck,” Mark calls out. “Come here for a sec?”

Donghyuck pauses from where he’s leaving the kitchen empty-handed. “What’s up?” He asks, changing directions to walk towards Mark.

Mark grins. “Are you free later?” He asks, tapping his fingers on his leg while checking Donghyuck’s expression carefully.

Donghyuck pauses for a second, face neutral. “Yeah I am,” He says, glancing at his room briefly. “Why?”

“Can you come over to Chenle’s house later with me? I have this thing I’m testing out,” Mark says.

“What thing?”

“Secret,” Mark grins. “Can you come?”

Donghyuck sighs and shrugs. “I was only going to play games anyway. Why not,” He agrees, much more easily than Mark’d expected. He’d prepared a full list of reasons earlier to convince Donghyuck, mostly ranging between _Czennies’ surprise_ (which was a load of bullshit—Mark would never risk fans finding out about his split body scenario, not that Donghyuck knew) and all the effort Mark (well, mostly the other Marks but still technically all Mark the same) had put into the plan.

“Cool,” Mark says, not one to look a horse gift in the mouth. “See you later!”

Donghyuck nods and walks back to his room. Mark pulls out his phone to text the other Marks through Chenle’s phone. _He agreed! Part one: success :D_

This plan of theirs is a little more complicated this time. To summarise it simply: Mark will give Donghyuck a bouquet (made of paper this time) with a love letter inside it. Sounds simple, right? To put things into perspective: he will do this in the middle of a magic show.

Jeno had come over in the middle of the Marks’ planning session in order to bring them food. 

“What about a performance?” Jeno had said.

There’d been a brief pause while all the Marks thought about the suggestion, and then Mark II’d snapped his fingers. “We could hold a magic show!” At Jeno and Chenle’s blank expressions, he’d added, “Since we’re cloned. Might as well take advantage of it and pretend we’re doing some magician shit, you know?”

“That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard of,” Chenle’d sighed fondly, but later willingly agreed to let them set up the magic show in his living room.

Unfortunately, on Donghyuck and Mark’s way to leave, Jisung pops out of his room to ask where they’re going. This attracts the attention of both Jaemin and Renjun, and Mark ends up finding himself travelling with three more people than expected, more nervous about messing up now that he knows there will be three extra pairs of eyes on his supposed magic.

He quickly texts Chenle when they’re walking towards his house before turning off his phone.

“Come in, make yourselves comfortable,” Mark says when they reach the front door, already unlocked for him to open.

“Damn,” Jaemin whistles when they walk in. Mark understands why. Before he’d come back to the dorm to collect Donghyuck, he, his four clones and Jeno had worked hard to move things around Chenle’s living room and set up the scene. The couch and dog cage were gone, in its place three seats for Mark’s _intended_ guests. Opposite it was the makeshift stage, which mostly consisted of a table cleared and covered with a dark fabric Mark hastily bought at the nearest fabric store. The entire room was draped with various fabrics to set up for their ‘magic’.

“You guys can sit on the floor,” Chenle calls from his seat, Daegal in arm. “Since you weren’t supposed to even be here.”

There’s a little bit of grumbling but eventually everyone gets seated, and Mark walks to the stage.

“So hey guys,” Mark says nervously, clasping his hands together. “Welcome, guests and unintended guests, to the Mark Lee show.” There’s a snicker from Jisung, which Mark ignores as Chenle pinches his cheek to quiet him. He continues on, “Let’s get this show started. Alright!” He says, shaking his arms before stepping forward.

When he lifts his arm to the ceiling, Mark V hits the table as rehearsed to make a loud noise and Mark IV turns on the fog machine. Mark ignores the small gasps of surprise from the members in favour lowering his arm and stepping quickly behind one of the makeshift curtains hanging behind the stage, letting Mark III, who was in a black suit and top hat, step past him and out, as if Mark had changed clothes very quickly.

He hears Jaemin and Donghyuck hoot and breathes a sigh of relief.

Hopefully this will all go well.

Mark doesn’t actually have to appear again until the very end, when he switches with Mark III again to appear as if he’s changed back to his regular clothes, so all he hears throughout the show are gasps and cheers from the members. He allows himself a grin, since no one is here to look at him. By the time he steps back out, it’s to the deafening cheers from the members, all looking with wide eyes at Mark as they clap loudly for him. Mark’s heart stutters when he sees Donghyuck clutching his origami bouquet while grinning wildly, shooting Mark a thumbs up. In front of him, Renjun is staring at Mark oddly, but Mark forces himself to finish the show properly and direct the members to leave, citing that _a magician can’t reveal his secrets_ when some offered to help clean up the room and that he’d be back at the dorm right away when he’s done.

When he closes the door behind Renjun, Mark turns around to Chenle immediately. “What happened with Renjun? He was looking at me weirdly at the end.”

“He saw me,” Mark II says, frowning apologetically. “Coincidentally turned around right when I stepped out of the curtains. He didn’t say anything, though.”

“I texted him and told him to keep it a secret and that I’ll tell him the details later, don’t worry,” Jeno says, already grabbing some of the fabric draped around the room to roll up.

“Oh, thanks Jeno, you’re a lifesaver,” Mark sighs. “Anyone else notice anything?”

“Nope,” Mark V says, grinning. “You should have seen Donghyuck’s face when he received the bouquet. He was practically glowing.”

“You know what else would be glowing? If you cleaned up my room right now,” Chenle says, yawning. “I’m tired.”

“Thanks, Chenle,” Mark says softly, and Chenle nods.

“You’re welcome,” He replies. “Hope things go well for you.”

By the time Mark gets home, the others are already in bed and fast asleep, so he crawls into his place on the bed next to Chenle and forces himself to rest, ignoring the urge to fidget due to nerves from today. It takes him a while to fall asleep.

“Did you like the show?” Mark asks next morning. He and Donghyuck are alone in the kitchen, making small talk as they eat cereal since they both somehow woke up early for once. (Mark got a very suboptimal amount of sleep last night, but his body refused to let him sleep further after waking up very early in the morning, so he padded out of his room to find a Donghyuck sitting on the couch, blinking cutely at him when he noticed his presence.)

Donghyuck stops pouring cereal into his bowl and reaches for the milk. “Yeah, it was cool. I’m sure Czennies will love it,” He replies nonchalantly.

Mark forces himself to eat another spoonful of cereal before asking, “Did you like the flowers?”

Donghyuck blinks. “Oh yeah, they were great. Thanks hyung. It looks really good. How’d you even find the time to make all that? And prepare a whole magic show too.”

Mark shrugs and eats another spoon of cereal. “I found time here and there. Did you take a good look at the flowers?” He presses. Will Donghyuck mention the note to him?

“Yeah, I saw the way they were folded really nicely,” Donghyuck says, sitting down opposite Mark and eating his first bite of cereal. “Thanks hyung.”

The conversation dies out and they spend the rest of breakfast in silence.

On the morning of February 14th, Mark wakes up to his alarm blasting Yuta’s voice. Chenle kicks his leg lightly as he rolls around and hides his head in a pillow. Mark quickly silences his alarm and blindly finds his way to the bathroom, one eye still closed as he moves out of muscle memory.

After freshening up and changing into casual clothes, Mark starts to wake up the other members one by one. Most groan and try to ignore him, but eventually they wake up and huddle near the front door, nervously waiting for a text from their driver to leave the dorm and be driven to the music show stage for their comeback.

On the way to the broadcasting station, Jaemin pulls out his phone and starts taking selfies, so Mark follows suit and posts a picture on Bubble, wishing fans a happy Valentine’s day. He also pulls up his group chat with 127 to react to their messages for Jaehyun’s birthday (Mark had already texted Jaehyun a message himself at midnight on the dot) before closing his eyes and taking a nap.

The day passes by fairly quickly. After their initial stage rehearsal, Mark spends the rest of his waiting time monitoring his performance and practicing the details of the dance until he’s satisfied. Then they’re ushered into the changing rooms to change their clothes and do their makeup before being called to the stage. The stage performance itself is great; Mark had greatly missed performing with the Dream members and he genuinely enjoyed the stage.

Once backstage, Mark quickly changes out of his stage outfit before pulling Donghyuck aside into an empty change room when he spots the boy waiting in NCT Dream’s assigned area.

“What’s up, hyung?” Donghyuck asks, muffling a yawn behind his hand.

Mark pulls out a small box of chocolates, homemade this time, and holds it out in front of him. “I just wanted to give this to you. Happy Valentines,” He says nervously, pushing the chocolates towards Donghyuck before he can chicken out. Mark hadn’t been there making the chocolates because he had last minute rehearsals with the Dream members before their comeback, but his clones had made sure to let him know what a pain it was to hand make chocolates, sending pictures and videos of all their failed trials before they made a successful batch. Mark shudders to think about four copies of himself in the kitchen cooking unsupervised, mentally sending his thanks to Chenle for offering up his kitchen willingly in an act of faith.

Donghyuck’s eyes widen as he accepts the box. “Thank you,” He says, eyes flickering between Mark and the chocolate. “I don’t have anything for you.”

“It’s fine,” Mark says, smiling.

“Wait hyung, I have something to say,” Donghyuck says quickly, stepping closer to Mark. “About your origami flowers—”

“Not now,” Mark says, glancing at the door. If he was going to be rejected, he’d prefer for it to not be when he’s surrounded by people buzzing around the area, able to walk in and see his face at any time. “Too many people around, and we should leave soon. Dorm?”

Donghyuck nods. “Dorm,” He confirms.

When they finally get back to their dorm, Mark and Donghyuck quickly go through their nightly routines and change into comfortable sleepwear. While Donghyuck is using the bathroom, Mark, Jeno and Chenle sneak the other Marks into the dorm to hide in Jeno’s closets. Jeno and Chenle then grab their devices and pat Mark’s shoulder, before moving to the other Dreamies’ rooms to give Mark and Donghyuck a chance to talk alone.

A few minutes later Donghyuck opens the door to Jeno’s room and then knocks on it, smiling sheepishly at Mark’s unimpressed look at the gesture. He quickly goes to sit on Mark and Chenle’s temporary bed while Mark stands opposite him, an unrecognisable expression on his face.

“Hyung,” Donghyuck starts, hesitating. “The letter in your bouquet—”

“I like you,” Mark blurts, accidentally cutting off Donghyuck. “Uh, sorry, wait. Please let me finish. I’m your secret admirer. I’ve been putting gifts into your locker the whole time,” His fingers dig into his palms behind his back. “I know you don’t like me back, but I just wanted to get it off my chest—”

“Who said I didn’t?” Donghyuck interrupts.

Mark frowns. “Well, you never really show a reaction to the—”

“Hyung,” Donghyuck says, standing up. “I’ve known you for nearly a decade.”

“Yes,” Mark says confusedly, when Donghyuck doesn’t continue his words.

“Yes,” Donghyuck says slowly. “I’ve known you for nearly ten years. I can recognise your handwriting.”

“Oh.”

“I knew it was you the whole time,” Donghyuck admits. “I just wanted to tease you a little for taking so long to notice you liked me.”

Mark blinks rapidly, trying to ignore the tears forming at the corners of his eyes. He knows Donghyuck often enjoys playing pranks, but this is cruel even for him. “Why would you do that?” He whispers.

“I like you back hyung,” Donghyuck says, sounding exasperated. “Geez, how dense can you be? I’ve liked you since I was fifteen!”

Mark pauses, feeling his heart stop. “Wait, what?”

“I, Lee Donghyuck, return your feelings, Mark Lee,” Donghyuck says slowly. “I’m sorry I didn’t let you know I knew earlier. I just wanted to tease you a little and I was curious to see what else you’d do when you thought I didn’t know who you were. I was going to confess to you after promotions end, you’re so hasty hyung.”

“You,” Mark splutters. Is this real?

Donghyuck grins. “Yes, me.” He says simply. “Thank you for your letter, by the way. I really liked it.” 

Mark flushes. “Yeah, uh, you’re welcome. Bro.” He pulls at his sleeves, unsure at what to say.

“Bro,” Donghyuck deadpans. “Wanna date, bro?”

Mark blinks. “Yes!” He says quickly. “Oh, wait, I still have something to tell you.”

Donghyuck grins and walks closer to Mark until they’re face to face. He grabs Mark’s hand and links Mark’s fingers with his own. “Hm?”

Mark wonders if there’s a nice, casual way he can let Donghyuck know that his best friend—boyfriend now, actually—right now is only one fifth of a whole Mark Lee, who had somehow mysteriously split into five people. “So you know that magic show…”

“Oh, yeah! I was gonna ask about that later. How’d you do all those magic tricks? Did you have a secret assistant? Speaking of the secret assistant, did they help you put gifts into my locker too? Because I didn’t let you out of my sight for entire practice sessions, and yet somehow when we come back to the lockers I still find a gift from you. Unless it’s someone else? Do I have a second secret admirer? Do you have a rival, Mark Lee?” Donghyuck rambles, swinging his and Mark’s conjoined hands lightly as he interrogates Mark.

Mark blinks. “Uh, It’s just me, actually,” He admits.

“There’s no way it was just you,” Donghyuck squints. “Did you not hear my detective reasoning? I said—”

“Well actually—”

“They were from me,” A voice interrupts, and Mark and Donghyuck simultaneously turn to Jeno’s closet just in time to see Mark II (if Mark’s memory served him right—it’s a bit difficult to remember which Mark clone was which when they changed clothes every day) step out of it. 

“And me,” Mark III adds, stepping out after him.

“Me too.”

“Surprise? Haha.”

Mark is glad that Donghyuck is still holding onto him, because he honestly looks like he’s one blow away from crumpling to the ground in his shock.

Donghyuck stares for a moment before he recovers, turning around to Mark so quickly Mark is worried he’ll get whiplash. “Wait, what the fuck?” He utters, holding on tighter to Mark’s hand.

“Haha, this is what I wanted to tell you,” Mark says sheepishly. “One day I, well actually, _we_ woke up and found ourselves cloned. Into five.” He looks expectantly at Donghyuck, unsure of how he’ll react.

There’s a tense pause where all the Marks collectively hold their breath. Then, “Wow, I really thought I had multiple suitors fighting over me,” Donghyuck pouts. “Turns out it’s just you.”

“I mean—” Mark II says.

“Suitors of _variety_ , Canada, so I can be like the hot drama lead that can choose between the love interests. Not just five carbon copies of one person.”

Mark snorts. “Well, if you didn’t want us you could have just said so,” He teases.

“I’m joking,” Donghyuck says quickly, pulling Mark closer. He reaches out an arm to grab onto Mark II too. “You aren’t allowed to leave anymore. None of you. Wait, am I dating all of you? Since technically I only asked out one Mark—”

“Yeah, we’re all dating,” Mark V says cheerily. “Same person, just temporarily split.”

“Right,” Donghyuck says. “Who else knows?”

“Jeno and Chenle knew from the start,” Mark III says. “And Renjun found out at the magic show.”

“Wow, you really told them and not me,” Donghyuck pouts. Mark shrugs helplessly in reply. “Wait, how are you gonna turn back into one? How long have you been turned for?” Donghyuck asks, frowning at Mark II.

“We’ve been split into five since the day after Jisung’s birthday,” Mark IV replies. “And as for how we’ll turn back… we don’t know yet,” He says sheepishly. “It’s a work in progress.”

“Right,” Donghyuck says slowly. “Ok Marks, I think it’s time to sleep now. I’m tired and I think my brain is overloaded.”

“Agreed,” Mark says. Today has been unreal for him, so it must be even more so for Donghyuck, who didn’t even know about Mark’s clones until just ten minutes ago.

“Good night,” Donghyuck says softly, before quickly leaning in and pecking his cheek. Then he turns to Mark II and kisses his cheek too, and then Mark III, and then Mark IV and Mark V.

“Wow, so much effort,” Donghyuck jokes, walking towards the door. “We can all talk more tomorrow. Good night, my secret admirers!”

“Night,” The Marks echo. 

The door closes, and the Marks all stand there in silence, momentarily stunned by today’s unexpected events.

A few minutes later, Jeno and Chenle walk in.

“Congrats, guys,” Jeno says, grinning. Chenle shoots a thumbs up at the Marks, who weakly reply with their own.

“Well, how are we all gonna sleep tonight?” Chenle asks. “Bags not giving up the bed.”

There’s a bit of a squabble at first, but in the end Mark II and Mark III end up going to the other members’ rooms to borrow sleeping bags before all reconvening in Jeno’s room, spreading out the sleeping bags on the floor to sleep.

Mark lies down at his usual spot on the bed next to Chenle. “Thanks for your help, guys,” He says into the dark, stifling a yawn behind his hand.

“You’re welcome,” Jeno mumbles, while Chenle whispers, “Be quiet, Mark.”

With a chuckle, Mark turns to the side and closes his eyes. This time, sleep takes over him quickly.

The next morning, Mark wakes to a voice (that isn’t Yuta’s alarm) calling him awake yet again.

“Wake up Mark,” The voice says urgently.

“Hm?” Mark opens his eyes and blinks. His head hurts slightly so he doesn’t sit up just yet, opting instead to stay lying down and pressing his fingers against his forehead in an attempt to soothe the pain. “What’s up?”

The voice calling him is Jeno, who smiles at him sheepishly when he rubs an eye. “You’re back to one, Mark,” Jeno says.

 _This_ gets Mark to sit up quickly. He reaches towards Jeno’s bedside table and takes his glasses to put them on, blinking at the sudden cleared vision before glancing around the room. True to Jeno’s word, the other Marks seem to have completely disappeared, leaving behind a bunch of rumpled sleeping bags on the floor.

Mark closes his eyes and tries to filter through his thoughts. “It’s not a prank, is it?” He asks, though he’s doubtful that Jeno would ever try to prank him about something like this.

He concentrates on the thoughts swirling through his head. Slowly, memories from all five versions of himself come to mind, showing Mark visions of himself simultaneously at dance practice and at a bakery and at Chenle’s house, among other things. 

The door slams open and Mark winces as he opens his eyes. 

“Lee Donghyuck, you liar,” Jaemin grouses, yelling behind him as he leans against the door frame. “There’s only one Mark hyung here.”

“Good morning, boyfriend, nice to see you in one piece again,” Donghyuck calls out, shoving Jaemin to walk into the room. Behind Mark, Chenle groans and shifts, causing the bed to move. “I’m telling you Jaem, it’s true! How do you think he gave me all those gifts?”

“Mark is absolutely fully capable,” Jeno jokes.

“Wait, Mark is the one who gave Donghyuck those sunflowers?” That’s Jisung, who’s popped his head into the room behind Jaemin, probably to see what all the noise in the morning was from.

Renjun sticks his head on Jisung’s shoulder. “I told you they were from Mark, no one else would be that cheesy,” Renjun mutters, evidently still half asleep from the way his eyes droop, as if he’s about to fall asleep right then and there on top of Jisung.

“Will we ever get peace in this godforsaken dorm,” Chenle grumbles. “It’s too early in the morning for this.”

“Stay tuned to find out,” Jaemin says cheerily. “And I believe Mark is omnipresent, so there. What you got to say about that huh, Hyuck? Markie, back me up here.”

Mark makes eye contact with his boyfriend and grins. Then he shifts his gaze to Jaemin, who has migrated to the foot of Mark and Chenle’s bed to grumble some more, mostly incoherent since he’s whispering too softly. “Trade secret, Jaem?” Mark asks.

**Author's Note:**

>   * title is from dunk shot by nct dream
>   * happy valentines!
>   * [link to translation of where dh answered 5yo mk vs 5 mks](https://twitter.com/markcublee/status/1261606189248335873?s=21), which i paraphrased a bit hehe
> 

> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/magic_san) / [cc](https://curiouscat.me/antihero)


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